Lecture 1 - Philosophy of Humanities - 4 Feb ‘19
What is philosophy of science?
— General philosophy os : addresses certain issues that transcend specific disciplines
Specific philosophy os: issues specific to a particular scientific discipline
● Issues/questions: methodological, epistemological, metaphysical
● E.g. explaining why democratic countries not engage - specific philosophy
● Normative and descriptive philosophies:
Democratic peace hypothesis
● “Why do democratic countries not engage in warfare against each other”
● What kind of question is being asked? Resemblance question: why several
democratic states have a specific feature in common.
● Answer: Democratic peace hypothesis
● Explanation format: Mechanism unificationCommon (causal) factors in social
mechanisms across democratic countries
General philosophy of science
General question: E.g. commonalities and difference in the structure of explanation by
mechanism unification across scientific disciplines
What kind of philosophical theory of science/
A) A logical theory of science
● the structure of scientific theories and the relationships between theory nd evidence
B) Methodology of science
● Rules or procedures that scientists do or should follow
C) Understanding scientific thinking
● Scientific reasoning processes
D) Understanding scientific change
Descriptive and normative philosophies
Explication (Carnap): Scientists often use explications
E.g. replacing the concept fish by scientific concept piscis.
● Fish: Animals that live in water
● Piscis: Animals that live in water, are coldblooded vertebrates and have gills.
Carnap: Philosophers should do so as well.
, Need to explicate what the intended meaning is of notions. Getting the intended meaning of
notions is called explications.
Means for:
● Descriptive claims about science
● Normative claims about science
E.g. formulating norms for scientists on the basis of philosophical explications of scientific
concepts
Science vs. Pseudo-science
Science is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable
explanations and predictions about the world.
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief or practice which is presented as scientific but lacks the
valid scientific methodology or supporting evidence.
Reproduction and replication
Science - results should be able to be reproduced
● Reproduction: experiment y repeats experiment x; x and y have the same design;
and the result of y confirm x results
● counteract fraud and chance results (1/20 norm)
● increase representativity
● Replication: experiment y repeats experiment x; x and y have a different design; and
the results of y confirm x’s results
● coutneract biased results due to measuring…
“reproducibility project: psychology”
● Problem of non-reproducible results in psychology
Goals of science
● Realism
● “One actual and reasonable aim of science is to give us accurate descriptions of
what reality is like. The project includes giving us accurate representations of aspects
of reality that are unobservable.
● Constructive empiricism
- “Science aims to give us theories which are empirically adequate.”
- Accurate descriptions of the observable parts of the world.
What is philosophy of science?
— General philosophy os : addresses certain issues that transcend specific disciplines
Specific philosophy os: issues specific to a particular scientific discipline
● Issues/questions: methodological, epistemological, metaphysical
● E.g. explaining why democratic countries not engage - specific philosophy
● Normative and descriptive philosophies:
Democratic peace hypothesis
● “Why do democratic countries not engage in warfare against each other”
● What kind of question is being asked? Resemblance question: why several
democratic states have a specific feature in common.
● Answer: Democratic peace hypothesis
● Explanation format: Mechanism unificationCommon (causal) factors in social
mechanisms across democratic countries
General philosophy of science
General question: E.g. commonalities and difference in the structure of explanation by
mechanism unification across scientific disciplines
What kind of philosophical theory of science/
A) A logical theory of science
● the structure of scientific theories and the relationships between theory nd evidence
B) Methodology of science
● Rules or procedures that scientists do or should follow
C) Understanding scientific thinking
● Scientific reasoning processes
D) Understanding scientific change
Descriptive and normative philosophies
Explication (Carnap): Scientists often use explications
E.g. replacing the concept fish by scientific concept piscis.
● Fish: Animals that live in water
● Piscis: Animals that live in water, are coldblooded vertebrates and have gills.
Carnap: Philosophers should do so as well.
, Need to explicate what the intended meaning is of notions. Getting the intended meaning of
notions is called explications.
Means for:
● Descriptive claims about science
● Normative claims about science
E.g. formulating norms for scientists on the basis of philosophical explications of scientific
concepts
Science vs. Pseudo-science
Science is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable
explanations and predictions about the world.
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief or practice which is presented as scientific but lacks the
valid scientific methodology or supporting evidence.
Reproduction and replication
Science - results should be able to be reproduced
● Reproduction: experiment y repeats experiment x; x and y have the same design;
and the result of y confirm x results
● counteract fraud and chance results (1/20 norm)
● increase representativity
● Replication: experiment y repeats experiment x; x and y have a different design; and
the results of y confirm x’s results
● coutneract biased results due to measuring…
“reproducibility project: psychology”
● Problem of non-reproducible results in psychology
Goals of science
● Realism
● “One actual and reasonable aim of science is to give us accurate descriptions of
what reality is like. The project includes giving us accurate representations of aspects
of reality that are unobservable.
● Constructive empiricism
- “Science aims to give us theories which are empirically adequate.”
- Accurate descriptions of the observable parts of the world.
